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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2003, p. 1871-1874, Vol. 69, No. 3
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.3.1871-1874.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Biodegradation of the Nitramine Explosive CL-20

Air Force Research Laboratory, Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida 32403,¹ Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council of Canada, Montreal, Quebec H4P 2R2, Canada²

Received 16 September 2002/ Accepted 17 December 2002

The cyclic nitramine explosive CL-20 (2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane) was examined in soil microcosms to determine whether it is biodegradable. CL-20 was incubated with a variety of soils. The explosive disappeared in all microcosms except the controls in which microbial activity had been inhibited. CL-20 was degraded most rapidly in garden soil. After 2 days of incubation, about 80% of the initial CL-20 had disappeared. A CL-20-degrading bacterial strain, Agrobacterium sp. strain JS71, was isolated from enrichment cultures containing garden soil as an inoculum, succinate as a carbon source, and CL-20 as a nitrogen source. Growth experiments revealed that strain JS71 used 3 mol of nitrogen per mol of CL-20.